The series returns after a well-earned summer break and I think it may have caught the sun because there are several things about this edition that are not quite right.
The first is that it is all reggae - does that mean none or all of them count as an MRV? I don't know. The second is that technically the ten tracks below are not a single song. Most of them have the same rhythm track as the original record but a few just sample its most distinctive feature. But Single Plinky Plonk Sunday sounded a bit silly.
The original is "My Conversation", released in 1968 by The Uniques, then consisting of the sublime Slim Smith on lead vocals with Lloyd Charmers and Jimmy Riley on harmonies. There are some decent straightforward covers out there by the likes of Delroy Wilson but I have not included any because, frankly, what would be the point? The Uniques were given that name for a reason.
Instead we will skip forward to 1974 when Bunny Lee, who produced the original record, sold the rhythm track to Rupie Edwards who used it as the basis of one of the first ever single 'riddim' albums, "Yamaha Skank". Shorty The President represents them today. There have been several trillion 'riddim' albums since but very few as good as this one.
After that the 'plinky plonk' motif became ubiquitous for a while. The good folks at Riddimguide have identified well over a hundred examples and I suspect their list is far from complete. I won't go through the rest of the tracks one by one but they are in chronological order with two more from the 1970s, four from the 1980s and Beres from the 1990s.
King Tubby's dub version comes last because as far as I can tell it was not officially released until 1996 on a compilation called "King Tubby's Meets Scientist In A World Of Dub". The following year it appeared as a bonus track on a reissue of his 1975 classic album "Dub From The Roots" so my guess is that it is a mid-1970s cut.
I'll shut up now and hand over to the mighty Slim and the rest of the plonkers plinkers.
"My Conversation" - The Uniques
"President Mash Up The Resident" - Shorty The President
"Barnabus Collins" - Lone Ranger
"Cricket Lovely Cricket" - Jah Thomas
"Jah Forgive Them" - Leroy Smart
"Rocking To The A-Class Champion" - Johnny Clarke
"Its Good To Have The Feeling You're The Best" - Tippa Irie
"Don't Ease Up" - Eccleton Jarrett
"Hey Girl" - Beres Hammond & Josey Wales
"Conversation Dub" - King Tubby
I hope the Uniques were properly rewarded for their plinks and plonks being used all over the shop.
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